National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, purchased under the Felton Bequest in 1925

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This profile drawing of an unknown cabinet maker was drawn in Sydney. Lambert modelled the head to vividly capture the young man’s alert expression and his thick mane of hair.

Lambert believed that line is capable of embodying vitality and rhythm, signifying life. In drawings such as this he captured variations of texture and showed a range of line from the delicate and sinuous to a heavy staccato.

As with a number of Lambert’s best portrait drawings the work has a generic title. This suggests that Lambert made the drawing because he was interested in the face of his subject rather than because he was commissioned to do so.